A celebration of the 100 most influential advisors and their contributions to critical conversations on finance. The latest markets news, real time quotes, financials and more. What’s the Vice Industry Token—A Crypto for Porn? If you’ve ever wondered where Bitcoin comes from and how it goes into circulation, the answer is that it gets “mined” into existence.

Bitcoin mining serves to both add transactions to the block chain and to release new Bitcoin. The mining process involves compiling recent transactions into blocks and trying to solve a computationally difficult puzzle. The first participant who solves the puzzle gets to place the next block on the block chain and claim the rewards. Security of the Bitcoin Network Bitcoin mining is decentralized. Anyone with an internet connection and the proper hardware can participate. The security of the Bitcoin network depends on this decentralization since the Bitcoin network makes decisions based on consensus. If an individual person or organization has control of greater than half of the Bitcoin network’s mining power, then they have the power to corrupt the block chain.